


Snow Bunny

by Cesare



Series: Dog and Tiger [3]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Kids, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Gen, Kid Fic, Teenagers, teen!Erik, wee!Charles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-26
Updated: 2012-08-26
Packaged: 2017-11-12 22:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cesare/pseuds/Cesare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>13-year-old Erik looks after six-year-old Charles and defends him from possibly-rabid wildlife. (Bunnies count as wildlife!) Inspired by <a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://lynneh9.tumblr.com/post/30117322946/erik-why-is-it-so-close-isnt-it-afraid-of-us">art & some lines of dialogue by lynneh9</a>.</p><p>This story has been <strong>translated into Russian</strong>! <a href="http://miroveha.diary.ru/p183396237.htm">Russian translation of Snow Bunny</a> by <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/miroveha">miroveha</a>. :D!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow Bunny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lynneh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynneh/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Снежный кролик](https://archiveofourown.org/works/627779) by [miroveha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miroveha/pseuds/miroveha)



"Charles! _Charles,_ seriously, come on," Erik slogged through the snow. Charles was six and small for his age with short little legs, how did he get so far ahead? "Come back, okay? You've got to stay in sight."

Charles's head popped up behind a line of white-piled shrubbery. "It's just the backyard!"

"Yeah, but your backyard is a thousand acres!" Erik said. "And a bunch of it's woods and there's a lake..." There wasn't even a fence around the lake or anything. Dr. Xavier said Charles was too smart to fall in and Mrs. Xavier barely seemed to notice half the time that she even had a kid. Erik's promise to watch Charles every now and then had expanded to cover whenever his mother was busy, because it seemed like no one else was really doing it.

"We're not even by the lake!" Charles yelled, taking off again.

"You're going to get me in trouble!" Erik called after him.

That was the one guaranteed way to get Charles to mind him. Charles had memorized all the common argumentative fallacies and he took obnoxious pleasure in punching holes in any attempt to tell him what to do-- declarations of "Appeal to authority! Equivocation! Post hoc ergo propter hoc!" sounded weird in his reedy English-accented little voice, but he was consistently right. He wouldn't get Erik in trouble, though. He was trudging back through the snow now, looking sulky but contrite.

"Thank you," Erik muttered, bending to fix Charles's scarf; it had come unwound while he was running around. "There. Now stick by me, okay?"

{{I always know where you are,}} Charles told him mind-to-mind, his mittened hand touching his temple.

"I know you do, but you don't sense animals. I've seen big raccoons out here and they don't act like they're scared of people, and there's skunks, and..." And something was twinging his sense of magnetism up ahead. "Stay right here. There's some steel up ahead, I'm going to see what it is."

It was half-buried in fallen leaves and boughs and snow; Erik put out his hand to it as he got closer, and it lifted off the ground. He shook it free of sticks and mulch. It looked like a cage.

{{It's a live animal trap,}} Charles supplied helpfully. {{It doesn't hurt them. There were feral cats last year, the groundskeeper caught them. Be quiet coming back, okay?}}

{{Okay,}} Erik answered, setting the trap down again and picking his way back to Charles. There was a lump in the snow near Charles; at first Erik thought it was the start of a snowman, or a snowball, but it moved, and he dropped to his knees, ready to grab Charles and drag him away.

{{It's just a rabbit!}} Charles told him.

{{Why is it so close? Isn't it afraid of us? Maybe it has rabies--}}

{{It's close because it's eating!}}

Erik tilted his head down. The rabbit tensed and froze every time he moved, but when he didn't come closer, it just went back to... it _was_ eating, it had some zucchini and carrot peels. {{Where did those come from?}} Like he didn't know.

{{Pocket,}} Charles sent, unrepentant.

{{So you come out here with rotten food scraps in your pockets and feed wild animals? How have you managed not to get your face clawed off?}}

{{I only do it in the winter. They're hungry.}}

{{I'm never letting you watch Bambi again.}}

{{But it's my favorite!}}

{{I thought Fantasia was your favorite.}}

{{Bambi is my _other_ favorite.}}

Erik shook his head. Sometimes with all the _post hoc ergo propter hoc_ stuff, it was easy to forget, but now and then it came through loud and clear that even if he was genius-smart and psychic, Charles was still six. "Come on," he said out loud, and the bunny startled and bounded off. "We've been out long enough, it's freezing. Let's go in."

"Already?"

"I'll make us hot chocolate," Erik promised.

Charles brightened. "All right!" he said, and he held Erik's hand without argument all the way back to the house.


End file.
